Paint Party Friday November 28, 2014

Once again it's FRIDAY! 

That fun day of the week we all get to share our passions and look at lots of yummy art from around the world! Thank You Eva and Kristin for putting up with us all these years and for hosting our favorite day of the week. 

Along with the rest of my U.S. friends this week was busy for me with the Thanksgiving prep work and the over indulging in food on yesterday. I was still able to get some time squeezed in for art. One project only... but a major one. I finished the painting for my Mom that I shared the WIP of last week . I'm so happy with this one and it is going to be very hard to wait til Christmas to give it too here.  

So here are a few of the WIP photos and then the finished painting.

Filling in the background and the leaves ...

Then starting on the big flower and finishing out the bud ...

....then shading the petals and adding little details here and there..

The final product...which is now wired and hanging in  the guest bedroom. 

I did share it on Facebook earlier in the week and now I have a commission for a small version. 
I have sketched out the piece and will probably get it painted nest week. 

Hopefully it will turn out well too... commissions make me a nervous wreck :-/ 

I usually say no.

Some Random Thoughts for today.....

Don't forget to click on the button on my sidebar to check out the other great art. 

♥

PAINT PARTY FRIDAY & ART JOURNAL JOURNEY

It's FRIDAY!!!

Thanks again to Eva and Kristin for being the creative drive behind this "ARTASTIC" weekly event that inspires so many of us.  

Here it has been a rather strange week with a total lack of inspiration and skill. The first part of the week when I tried to force the issue ... everything was looking like some mutant creation out of a very bad science fiction movie. So I gave it a day or two of rest and tried again. Finally flowers were looking like flowers and squirrels were looking line squirrels. ♥

at Art Journal Journey the challenge for November is "Inspired by the Masters"  and since November is also the birth month of Georgia O'Keeffe I choose to do a big flower. The Echinacea . 

Which just happens to be one of my favorite flowering herbs. 

  

It also happens to be one of my mom's favorite colors and I have been thinking of doing a painting for her bedroom I decided on an Echinacea for her.

So far I'm really happy with how it's going and hoping my Muse doesn't take off on another flight of fancy and leave me stranded. 

Neither are as mystical as a Georgia O'Keeffe but they are BIG flowers and I'm happy with them . 

Winter weather is officially here and Ella cat has started her "Winter Sports Watching"

She sets there for hours watching the birds at the feeders. I have a video of her and it shows here head going back and forth just watching. So cute. 

Today's Random Thoughts....

Don't forget to go and check out all the other great art.... just click on the buttons on my sidebar and enjoy .

♥

IT'S FRIDAY!!!! TIME FOR PPF AND AJJ

YEAH IT'S FRIDAY ♥

The day of the week we all get to share  and enjoy wondrous art ♥♥♥♥

It's been a low energy week here....over worked last weekend so paid for it the first part of the week and just been taking it slow and easy the rest of the week . 

I got a couple of Mandala's done this week...

I used markers of various type on this and really like it. The down side is that I have serious bleed through on the back side. ..

I knew this would happen so I was careful to use a page that didn't have anything on the back side yet. A quick coat of white gesso will fix the page so that it is usable and no art was sacrificed :) 

For Art Journal Journey this month we have "Inspired by the Masters" as our challenge. I chose Monet for this page. 

I used water soluble oil pastels and gesso to create this page. The original below was done in oils..

I really enjoyed creating  this page. Monet has always been one of my favorites and I was blessed with the opportunity to see his work several years ago at the St. Louis Art Museum. My daughter was very young ...around 5 years or maybe younger at the time... I can remember her looking at one of the large Hay Stack paintings and her saying she wants to paint like that.  She did grow up to be an artist so the trip was worth while in many respects. 

Monet still remains one her most favorite artist. 

Today's Random Thoughts...

Don't forget to go and visit all of the great art at 

Paint Party Friday 

and 

Art Journal Journey 

Just click on the buttons on my sidebar. 

♥

T Stands for Tuesday

It's time for Tea and

T Stands for Tuesday ! 

First off I'd like to thank Elizabeth for giving me a Heads Up on her blog this week. Since she posted on making teabags and was kind enough to mention me I thought I'd write about my teas again. 

I make a lot of herbal tea blends and herbal tinctures using herbs I grow in my garden and a few I buy at farmers market or on line. 

I've been getting my bags from BulkHerbs.com 

and they look like this. 

 After filling the bags with the herb mixture you seal with heat....iron it. I used to use a small craft size iron I've hard for years. I however dropped it and it no longer works. I'm not in the mood to buy a new one or drag out my real clothing iron so I usually just heat a butter knife on my electric stove  burner ( very carefully and not real hot) and seal it that way. 

I did just recently realize that MountainRoseHerbs.com  does carry the bags too and they are less expensive there. So that is where my next order will come from :) 

I'm way behind on processing my herbs this year..

This is what's in the basement in various stages of drying on a screen door.

This is the Chocolate Mint I gathered last week. One tray is completely dry and the other two are almost there.

This is the sage I gathered today and still needs to be stripped from the stems put into the dehydrators and dried. 

I finally got all of the Thyme for the year dried and bottled. :) 

With the perfect growing weather this summer and the extremely warm and late long running fall I have about 3 times what I usually get in a growing season. 

This is my tea for the night. It's Sage and Thyme tea with raw honey and a dash of Cheyenne Pepper. Great for colds or in my case allergies. 

The art in the picture is an on going piece that I need to get off my desk so I stop changing it :) 

She started out like this...

...Then went to this...

....then to this.... 

...wishing I had left the splatters on at this point ...but too late they are gone :( ...

Here she is today.....

I have the white flowers going onto the sides of the painting too and some of the scribbles... but she's about to become too busy so she has to leave the desk ♥

Today's Random Thoughts

Don't forget to click on the button on my sidebar and visit the rest of the lovely folks at

T  Stands for Tuesday

♥

Art Journal Journey

Matisse 

For today's art I have chosen to do a Matisse inspired page. Actually it really chose me. As I set with my journal.... sort of watching TV. I was thinking of the dental work that I need to have done.... sooner rather than later... and the cost involved. How I wish the "Tooth Fairy" still visited and would leave a large amount of cash to pay for all this work. 

I had already decided to do something inspired by Matisse and so the 

"TOOTH FAIRY" 

appeared in my journal .

 If only she would appear at my home ♥

This week I harvested what I think will be the last of the Chocolate Mint for the year :) 

Will be bagging it up into teabags as soon as it's dried out. A hot cup of Chocolate Mint Tea on a cold winter day is soooo good ♥  I am amazed at the herbs and flowers still blooming in my garden this late in the season and after several frosts and a couple of hard freezes. The mints will be the only thing I harvest this late... since they are so aggressive and I don't mind if I kill off a few of the plants by harvesting so late. 

Today's random thoughts...

Sharing with 

Art Journal Journey

Don't forget to be a good sport and visit some of the other great journal pages ...

Just click on the button on my sidebar.

Paint Party Friday and Art Journals Journey

It's FRIDAY once again!!!♥♥♥♥♥

Thanks again to Eva and Kristin for doing this every week!!!! Even if I don't show up every week I do appreciate the chance. 

I was reluctant to share some of today's art. I don't like how it turned out and plan on redoing it but just don't have time for it today. Since it was the only thing I painted this week and I really wanted to post  I'm making myself share a BAD painting. 

At Art Journals Journey the theme this month is "Inspired by the Masters" so I desperately tried to do one of Van Gogh's Sunflower paintings. I paint sunflowers all of the time and do a great job of it.... but not this week :( I think I was over  thinking the getting it as close to the original stuff that I just blew it. The smaller one is much better because I pretty much gave up duplicating and just painted. 
So here is the original by 
Van Gogh...

....then here is my mess....

I considered just tearing the page out of my journal but I like the drawing on the back side so I'll just have to fix it later :) 

I did do a few Mandala's that I really like this week .

Just to reassure myself and anyone who doubts...LOL!... Here is a Sunflower I painted for my daughter for her birthday...

It's on a little trinket box that I used to hold some of the other gifts I had for her. 

So here are some random thoughts for today..

Don't forget to check out the other great art at 

Paint Party Friday 

and 

Art Journals Journal.

Just click on the buttons on my sidebar. 

♥

Around the World Blog Hop and T Stands for Tuesday

Surprise Elizabeth!!! 

I remembered :) 

A few weeks  back a  blog friend of mine asked if I would do the Around the World Blog Hop... I told her I would but that she would have to remind me on the day I was supposed to write or I'd forget. Good thing I told her.... cause you guessed it... I FORGOT. :( 

So first off we'll start with a little bit of background on me.... 

I was born and grew up in central Illinois. 

... wasn't I just the cutest little thing ? :) 

That was in 1952...so I'm old :) 

....as a teenager I had lots of attitude and spent a lot of time  grounded because of it... 

all of that time stuck at home in my room  gave me the opportunity to draw and do fiber arts. Someone teased me once about trying to be an artist ....so being the self conscious girl that I was I gave it up... 

.....for years. I spent my free time then doing fiber arts and making myself clothes to wear to school. My parents wouldn't spend much money on school clothes once I stopped outgrowing everything every year. I learned real fast though that they would pretty much buy me all the fabric I wanted :) 

My art didn't return until I was adult and my kids were grown. 

I started out making Native American Jewelry and Dream Catchers. Sold them through a shop a friend owned. Then I decided to try painting tee shirts and a whole new world opened for me.  

I couldn't stop drawing and painting.

......now the questions.....

       How does my work differ from others?

I'm not so sure that it does... I don't think I've really developed a style of my own yet. I take on line classes and visit other art blogs and get my inspiration from those artist. I'm feeling that my style is developing more towards the whimsical...but not completely sure on that yet. :)  I doodle a WHOLE LOT!

Why do I create what I do....

Being creative is an intricate part of who I am. If I go too long without being creative in some form I get very edgy and depressed. I'm not a happy person or a pleasant one. I have to be creative in order to be complete! 

How does my creative process work?

Sometimes I'll  see something or hear something that will just inspire me to create. ... and then again I'll just sometimes have an idea just pop into my head from out of no where  and I'll try to create that image or thought. It's kind of like my style... I don't really have a set process . 

What Am I Working ON ? 

Right now I am doing Mandalas . A new experience for me. I've always loved them but never tried doing one. I saw a challenge on Facebook and decided to give them a try. We'll see how this goes. 

A random sampling of my art....

First some fiber art.... 

hand dyed wool and scarves crocheted with it...

Last year I crocheted 100 hats and donated them to 3 local charities... I won't be crocheting that many hats in one year again! :) Talk about hard on the old hands!!!

...ART...

   

So that's me in a nut shell :) 

For T Stands for Tuesday here is my beverage shot...

Thanks Kathy for inviting me to join this HOP ♥

Please click on the T for Tuesday button on mu sidebar to check out the other great stuff going on :)